Increasingly popular oat crop gets new fungicide option for 2022

Notably, Elatus Era provides label approval against crown rust. Crown rust is a major disease that has increased as oats have become more popular.

The popularity of oats has increased substantially over recent years, but crown rust can slash yields by up to a fifth. Elatus Era is already well recognised for strong rust control in wheat and barley. Now, with the loss of other active ingredients, its approval on oats has come at an opportune time. It has been evaluated on both winter and spring oats.

In an ADAS oat trial in a high disease pressure situation in Devon, a single application of Elatus Era at the important T2 timing boosted yield by more than 3.0 t/ha over the untreated as well as by 1.9 t/ha over a triazole and by 1.6 t/ha over a strobilurin-based fungicide. Another big benefit seen with Elatus Era in the trial was reduced brackling.

Heavily brackled oats that need picking up off the ground at harvest are not something you want, especially if growing for the quality human consumption market. In the trial, brackling was reduced from 90 per cent with the triazole treatment and 76 per cent with the strobilurin treatment to just 23 per cent with Elatus Era. We attribute reduced brackling to improved disease control helping to better maintain plant cell structure.

As well as crown rust control, Elatus Era has shown good control in trials of the other important oat disease, powdery mildew, and increased yield in mildew situations.

The addition of oats to its label means Elatus Era can now be used across eight crop types: wheat, barley, triticale, rye, linseed/flax, combining peas, field beans and oats.

Joe Bagshaw is regional technical manager for Syngenta